The present invention relates to the handling of freight, and particularly the securing of freight on a flatbed of a truck or trailer, or of any other vehicle such as a railroad car. Vehicles employed for transporting freight can be divided between closed bed and open bed vehicles. It is known that open bed vehicles, commonly known as flatbed vehicles, offer a number of advantages, including greater flexibility in accommodating a variety of loads and lower manufacturing costs. In addition, a flatbed vehicle offers access to the entire load, which can frequently constitute a significant advantage.
However, freight which is loaded on a flatbed vehicle must be reliably secured in place and the systems which have heretofore been proposed and used all require the expenditure of considerable physical effort and time to secure the freight to the bed before transport.
When freight is to be shipped on a flatbed vehicle, it is a general practice to stack the freight in the form of a geometric solid, usually having the form of a prism, and to then immobilize the geometric solid by passing fastening devices from one side of the flatbed, over the top of the solid, to the other side of the flatbed. The freight may be in the form of containers which are stacked to form a rectangular prism, after which the load is secured in place.
According to conventional practice, the load is secured in place by providing some type of edge protector, which may be constituted by wooden boards, and then placing straps, cables or ropes across the top of the load, from fastening points on one side of the bed to fastening points on the opposite side thereof. Such an arrangement is disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,378,889, which issued on Apr. 23, 1968.
Use may be made of specially formed edge protectors having the form of right angle pieces, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,584,623, which issued on Dec. 17, 1996.
In known systems, the operator must climb onto the flatbed in order to lift the edge protectors into position, or it may be necessary to utilize poles to lift the edge protectors into place. It frequently occurs that an edge protector falls off of the pole, or off of the load before it is secured in place, causing damage to the edge protector and possibly also injury to the operator.
After the edge protectors have been positioned, it is necessary to secure the edge protectors in place with straps, cables or ropes, which involves tossing the straps, etc., over the top of the load. When not in use, the straps must be rolled up for storage. All of these operations are physically demanding and can cause various types of repetitive motion injury.
In the system disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,378,889, cited above, ropes must be fastened across the top of the load between edge protector assemblies and between each edge protector assembly and anchors along the sides of the bed. Thus, this system presents all of the above-mentioned difficulties associated with prior art systems.
In addition, it is usually necessary to cover the entire load with a tarpaulin, which generally weighs between 50 and 100 pounds and must be lifted to the top of the load by lifting equipment such as a forklift. Then, the tarpaulin must be unrolled to cover the top and sides of the load. There is a considerable risk of the tarpaulin falling during installation. In order to unload the flatbed, the tarpaulin must be pulled off of the load and then folded and stowed, all of which require strenuous repetitive motions that can cause a variety of injuries.